Modernizing Fleet Telematics With 5G

Image Source: Arvydas Kniukšta/Stock.Adobe.com

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle for Mouser Electronics

Published August 10, 2022

In the face of rising gas prices, and with consumer goods pricing at an all-time high, more goods are being packaged, shipped, and delivered than ever before.  While there are more vehicles in fleets to provide last-mile delivery, this reality stems from a general shortage of transportation fleet availability. Whether it is a driver shortage, or just an artifact of the transportation logistic supply chain/regulations, isn't relevant. What matters is the ability to make the most of available transportation resources.

An emerging solution to enhancing fleet operations' efficiency, safety, and timeliness is using 5G fleet telematics technologies to more effectively monitor drivers, provide assistance, and even enable real-time teleoperation. Enhanced fleet management accuracy and capabilities will ultimately bring about a revolution in fleet management that can undoubtedly ease the transportation logistic challenges across the globe.

This article will examine how vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) networks using 5G will transform all aspects of fleet management.

How 5G Is Revolutionizing Fleet Telematics

With the decommissioning of 3G services worldwide, it is now imperative for fleet telematics service providers and operators to find services to replace the lost capabilities previously provided by 3G services. Though these legacy 3G services delivered valuable insights into vehicle position with GPS data updates and minimal vehicle operation data, these services ultimately suffered from low-throughput, high latency, and often unreliable service. This is still somewhat the case for 4G services, which weren't designed or built to provide the throughput, latency, or reliability capabilities of the latest 5G technologies.

With the highly diverse heterogeneous network types provided by 5G services, staying connected in real-time with low latency communication and data transfer is now possible. There are now 5G services that integrate geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites, low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and terrestrial 5G services in a single seamless connectivity solution. This is part of a 5G trend where several service delivery methods, such as satellites, heterogeneous cellular networks, and even Wi-Fi networks, are being used to provide connectivity solutions that operate as a single network.

These new connectivity capabilities open many doors for fleet telematic solutions. For instance, there are now Bluetooth^® Low Energy (BLE) transponders embedded in packages and containers capable of sensing the condition of assets during transportation and in communication with gateways installed on vehicles (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Operators can track packages on a new level due to the BLE transponders. (Image Credit: AA+W/Stock.Adobe.com)

Moreover, some of these asset condition sensing devices also work as tracking devices, which can be used to monitor assets throughout the entire supply chain. These features allow for real-time monitoring of assets. They can also be used by artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) algorithms to provide a wealth of data and analysis services that can ultimately optimize and enhance the supply chain.

Another key tool for companies with ever-expanding fleets is the ability to monitor drivers and provide assistance services in case of emergencies, equipment failures, or vehicle breakdowns. In some cases, these services may require remote technicians to provide guidance, and teleconferencing in the field could be a vital tool for minimizing downtime and ensuring driver safety. 5G Augmented Reality/Virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, smartphones, or tablet technologies could be used in the field to rapidly diagnose vehicle or technical issues. Users could remotely connected operators or mechanics could aid drivers and support personnel by rapidly tackling issues that would otherwise require expensive service calls or towing to repair facilities.

Though still somewhat futuristic, the option of non-emergency teleoperation (remote operation) of the fleet is becoming a reality. Teleoperation could substantially ease driver strain, enhance overall road safety, ensure efficient fleet operation, and is ideally suited to better facilitate the transition to electric fleet vehicles. These new features could also include on-road real-time vehicle coordination using low-latency and ultra-reliable communications (URLLC), which is part of the 5G standard, to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. This could allow a single driver to be responsible for several fleet vehicles, each operating semi-autonomously, like trails that have been ongoing in Europe with follow-the-leader fleet operations.

Technologies Needed for 5G V2V and V2I Fleet Management/Telematics

The novel capability of 5G services is enabling new services and features that were previously impossible outside of highly specialized enterprise 4G systems. Being part of a ubiquitous standard with substantial government backing and aggressive service expansion enables 5G solutions that provide low latency, ultra-reliability, extreme speeds, and new network topologies.

5G Vehicle Communication & 5G Infrastructure Communication

Part of 5G's novel capabilities include the ability for 5G systems to intercommunication directly, peer-to-peer (P2P), without the need to relay information through the infrastructure. This is essential for fleet vehicle inter coordination, or V2V communications. For high-speed vehicles to safely and efficiently organize, the latency of the V2V communication must be as low as fractions of a millisecond or sub-millisecond. Otherwise, control algorithms may not be fast or stable enough to prevent undesirable instabilities and race conditions. Moreover, V2V communication must be incredibly reliable to provide gapless, real-time transmission of relatively high data transfer rates. These new 5G-enabled V2V communication capabilities also need to simultaneously support multiple data streams among several vehicles.

To support these capabilities, these fleet vehicles will need to be equipped with mobile 5G enterprise units that are also paired with GPS, a tie-in to the vehicle diagnostic information, and AI/ML edge nodes (Figure 2). Autonomous vehicle functions or teleoperation also necessitates a full suite of machine vision (MV) capabilities, including visual cameras, infrared cameras, proximity sensors, millimeter-wave (mmW) automotive radar, and possibly light detection and ranging—laser radar—(LIDAR).

Figure 2: 5G-equipped fleets will need to pair with GPS and include autonomous and AI features for heightened monitoring and efficiency. (Image Credit: AA+W/Stock.Adobe.com)

To accommodate vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) satellite communications, fleet vehicles will need a satellite communication link with associated satellite tracking technology. Such systems will also need their own data storage, memory, backup power, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection. These mobile 5G units will likely also benefit from additional wireless connectivity, including Wi-Fi^® 6e, BLE, and possibly other smart device services.

5G Infrastructure Networking and Fleet Management Networking: High Speed and Low Latency

Beyond the technological capabilities of a 5G fleet telematics-equipped vehicle, there needs to be an underlying networking infrastructure to support the high-speed and URLLC 5G features ideal for modern fleet management. Though the 5G build-out for high-speed services in US metropolitan areas has been aggressively pursued by noteworthy telecommunication service providers (telcos), the build-out of 5G services in more suburban or rural areas has been far slower. This is where the harmonization between 5G terrestrial services and GEO/LEO satellite services is crucial in enabling seamless connectivity for 5G services wherever a mobile vehicle may go. The FCC has recently approved Starlink LEO satellite ground terminals for mobile use, which is a huge step in enabling high-speed data connectivity for new satellite services to fleet vehicles.

Beyond the underlying networking infrastructure, there also needs to be remote networking & management services that are also as responsive and reliable as the 5G network they need to operate through. Many of these new fleet management services will need to be intelligently managed through distributed cloud services to minimize latency, ensure reliability, and allow for high data transfer rates. Moreover, these services should be paired with connected edge hardware robust enough to handle the rugged fleet transportation environment.

Conclusion

The next evolution of fleet management is emerging as a diverse combination of 5G services and new AI/ML and AR/VR technologies. These new solutions are poised to tackle many modern fleet management challenges, which only increase as fleets grow more extensive and the burden on logistics transportation rises.